MacKay’s credibility gap: pot, meet kettle

I began to suspect that Peter MacKay was not Reach for the Top material in 2011.

That’s when he told former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that California and British Columbia “shared” a border. He apparently forgot that Oregon and Washington stand between beautiful BC and the Golden State.

That impression deepened last July when MacKay used Bastille Day to tell guests gathered at the French Embassy in Ottawa that during the War of 1812, “had the French not been there fighting side by side, we might be standing here next to each other in a new light.”

The French were fighting side by side alright – with the Americans. No amount of tortured spin-doctoring by his office minions can change that. It should also be remembered that this same cabinet minister has been accused of confusing ex-girlfriend Belinda Stronach with a dog.

Now as Justice minister, MacKay has called Justin Trudeau out for breaking the law by admitting to smoking marijuana with friends while the kids were safely stowed at grandma’s.

I make that an F in geography, an F in history, and an F-minus in sociology. As for political science, it is a five-star belly flop.

Canadians are not marching on parliament to defend marijuana laws that are older than the Canadian Shield. Reefer madness just isn’t the bugaboo it once was – especially when, as of 2009, alcohol impaired drivers were involved in 38 percent of fatalities in this country and drunk driving cost Canadians $25 billion. So far, no word from Petey about bringing back Prohibition.

And then there is that recent Forum Research poll that said only 17 percent of Canadians favour leaving the law as it now stands. Sixty-five percent want marijuana either legalized or decriminalized.

MacKay’s denunciation of Trudeau is based on a statute that two million Canadians routinely break, that can’t be enforced, and that is fraught with hypocrisy. As a political gambit, MacKay’s pious pettifogging has merely handed Trudeau a constituency – just as Stephen Harper did when he opined that drugs are not bad because they are illegal, but illegal because they are bad. Deep.

The only people who would approve of MacKay’s horrible moral squint on this issue are the ones who still believe what Janey Canuck was telling Canadians in MacLean’s back in the 1920s – that the only escape for the marijuana user is “insanity, death, and abandonment.”

Still, our law-and-order top banana says that Trudeau’s credibility is “up in smoke” after his pot-use admission – an offence Canada’s chiefs of police think ought to warrant a ticket, not a criminal record.

Reefer madness just isn’t the bugaboo it once was – especially when, as of 2009, alcohol impaired drivers were involved in 38 percent of fatalities in this country and drunk driving cost Canadians $25 billion.

With the exceptions of Anthony Weiner and Lance Armstrong, Peter MacKay should be the last person interested in triggering a debate about credibility.

The F-35 debacle was the former Defence Minister’s credibility Waterloo. There were the two sets of books his Department kept for the project – one with the real price tag for cabinet, and the other that was $10 billion lower for parliamentary and public consumption. Remember when the former minister said this in the House of Commons in December 2010?

“Mr. Speaker, let us look at the actual contract. What the Canadian government has committed to is a $9-billion contract for the acquisition of 65 fifth-generation aircraft. This includes not just the aircraft, but also includes the on-board systems, supporting infrastructure, initial spares, training simulators, contingency funds. This is a terrific investment for the Canadian Forces.”

More snorkeling in the shallow end of the PR pool. There was no contract, MacKay’s price was out by at least $20-million per plane, and the Auditor General reported that both DND and the executive level of government knew the real figures. And don’t forget that $47,000 photo-op of MacKay behind the Toys-R-Us controls of a plywood F-35. Poster boys don’t come cheap.

MacKay’s math was also out to lunch on the true costs of the Libya Mission, which he again low-balled for public consumption. He told the CBC in October 2011 that Canada’s part in bringing down Colonel Muammar Gaddafi cost $50 million.

But a senior Canadian officer, Major-General Jonathan Vance, said the minister had been told before the interview that the final cost would be $106 million. MacKay simply denied he had been told the higher figure – leaving Canadians to choose between the credibility of the general or the only Harper cabinet minister to be twice fined for violating Canada’s Conflict of Interest Act.

Then there is MacKay’s exorbitant use of the public purse at a time of ostensible austerity.

There was the Canadian Forces helicopter in Newfoundland, one of only three available for emergency calls, ordered up by the minister’s office to facilitate high affairs of state – rescuing MacKay from a private fishing lodge where he was vacationing to whisk him to Gander Airport.

In a Ripley’s Believe It or Not moment, the Harper government portrayed this requisition as a chance for MacKay to see the Cormorant helicopter’s capabilities up close. And room for the fishing rods too. It was purely coincidental that the exercise was only “planned” the same day the helicopter was requested.

When the military types who tipped CTV to the story didn’t shore up this whopper with sufficient enthusiasm, they were chastised by MacKay’s staff for their “lacklustre defence” of the boss. Perhaps they were feeling a little defensive about the $3-million worth of flights the minister racked up aboard the government’s VIP Challenger jets over four years, second only to the prime minister.

And what about MacKay’s slurpy defence of every profligate and ill-conceived expenditure in the department he ran for five years – the argument that those who serve deserve the finest equipment available so that they can do their jobs. I guess that explains why the 5,000 reservists of the Canadian Rangers are sporting 303 Lee Enfield rifles from World War 1. But I guess if anyone invades the tundra, they will have those stealth Ski Doos to fall back on.

And then there is that matter of winning the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives on the promise to David Orchard never to merge John A. MacDonald’s party with the Canadian Alliance. So much for credibility.

What really bugged the MacKay about Justin Trudeau’s pot interview with Althia Raj of Huffington Post? He told the truth. Imagine if that caught on.

Author’s note: University of Ottawa professor Amir Attaran has asked the Nova Scotia Barrister’s Society to investigate Peter MacKay for unprofessional conduct after Canada’s Justice Minister and Attorney General accused Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau of breaking the law by admitting to have smoked marijuana. Professor Attaran points out that although it is illegal to grow, traffic, or possess marijuana, smoking the drug is not a criminal offence.

Michael Harris is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his “unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.” His eight books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. He is currently working on a book about the Harper majority government to be published in the autumn of 2014 by Penguin Canada.Readers can reach the author at[email protected]. Click here to view other columns by Michael Harris.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.